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Omaha's pioneer period began in 1854 when the city was founded by speculators from neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa. The city was founded along the Missouri River, and a crossing called Lone Tree Ferry earned the city its nickname, the "Gateway to the West." It introduced this new West to the world when in 1898 it played host to the World's Fair, dubbed the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. During the 19th century, Omaha's central location in the United States spurred the city to become an important national transportation hub. Throughout the rest of the 19th century, the transportation and jobbing sectors were important in the city, along with its railroads and breweries. In the 20th century, the Omaha Stockyards, once the world's largest, and its meatpacking plants, gained international prominence.

The modern economy of Omaha is diverse and built on skilled knowledge jobs. In 2009, Forbes identified Omaha as the nation's number one "Best Bang-For-The Buck City" and number one on "America's Fastest-Recovering Cities" list. Tourism in Omaha benefits the city's economy greatly, with the annual College World Series providing important revenue and the city's Henry Doorly Zoo serving as the top attraction in Nebraska. Omaha hosted the U.S. Olympic swim trials in 2008, 2012, and will host the event again in 2016.

Notable modern Omaha inventions include the TV dinner, developed by Omaha's then-Carl Swanson Co.;[11] Raisin Bran, developed by Omaha's Skinner Macaroni Co.; cake mix, developed by Duncan Hines, then a division of Omaha's Nebraska Consolidated Mills, the forerunner to today's ConAgra Foods; Butter Brickle Ice Cream and the Reuben sandwich, conceived by a chef at the then-Blackstone Hotel on 33rd and Farnam Streets;[12] center-pivot irrigation by Omaha's now-Valmont Corporation;[13] the bobby pin and the "pink hair curler," at Omaha's Tip Top; the ski lift, in 1936, by Omaha's Union Pacific Corp;[14] the "Top 40" radio format, pioneered by Todd Storz, scion of Omaha's Storz Brewing Co., and head of Storz Broadcasting, which was the first in the U.S. to use the "Top 40" format at Omaha's KOWH Radio. A character in a Rudyard Kipling essay claimed "dice were invented in Omaha, and the man who invented 'em, he made a colossal fortune." [15]

A historic preservation movement in Omaha has led to a number of historic structures and districts being designated Omaha Landmarks or listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Much of the push toward preservation came after Omaha gained the notorious designation of having, in 1989, demolished the largest-ever National Register historic district in the United States, a record that still stands as of 2013. The Jobbers Canyon Historic District, along the Missouri River, was felled for a new headquarters campus for ConAgra Foods, a company which threatened to relocate if Omaha did not allow them to raze the city's historic district. The Jobber's Canyon warehouses had before then been allowed to deteriorate and were the scene of several fires set by the homeless population that had come to live in the abandoned buildings. At the time, there were no plans in place for revitalizing the buildings.[16][17][18]

Today, the diverse culture of Omaha includes a variety of performance venues, museums, and musical heritage, including the historically significant jazz scene in North Omaha and the modern and influential "Omaha Sound".[19][20]

Sports have been important in Omaha for more than a century, and the city currently plays host to three minor-league professional sports teams. It is perhaps more known as the home of the College World Series, to which it has played host since 1950. The Kings, an NBA franchise, called Omaha and Kansas City home from 1972 to 1978.[21] The Kansas City-Omaha Kings split their time between the two cities, playing at Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium and the Omaha Civic Auditorium, before decamping solely to Kansas City until 1985, when the team moved to its current home of Sacramento.

Various Native American tribes had lived in the land that became Omaha, including since the 17th century, the Omaha and Ponca, Dhegian-Siouan-language people who had originated in the lower Ohio River valley and migrated west by the early 17th century; Pawnee, Otoe, Missouri, and Ioway. The word Omaha (actually Umoⁿhoⁿ or Umaⁿhaⁿ) means "Dwellers on the bluff".[22]

Through 26 separate treaties with the United States federal government, Native American tribes in Nebraska gradually ceded the lands currently comprising the state. The treaty and cession involving the Omaha area occurred in 1854 when the Omaha Tribe ceded most of east-central Nebraska.[29]Logan Fontenelle, an interpreter for the Omaha and signatory to the 1854 treaty, played an essential role in those proceedings.

Equally as important, the Union Stockyards were founded in 1883.[44] Within twenty years of the founding of the Union Stockyards in South Omaha, four of the five major meatpacking companies in the United States were located in Omaha. By the 1950s, half the city's workforce was employed in meatpacking and processing. Meatpacking, jobbing and railroads were responsible for most of the growth in the city from the late 19th century through the early decades of the 20th century.[45]

With dramatically increasing population in the 20th century, there was major civil unrest in Omaha, resulting from competition and fierce labor struggles.[57] In 1900, Omaha was the center of a national uproar over the kidnapping of Edward Cudahy, Jr., the son of a local meatpacking magnate.[58]

The city's labor and management clashed in bitter strikes, racial tension escalated as blacks were hired as strikebreakers, and ethnic strife broke out.[59]A major riot by ethnic whites in South Omaha destroyed the city's Greek Town in 1909, completely driving out the Greek population.[60]

Six years later, in 1919, the city was caught up in the Red Summer riots when thousands of ethnic whites marched from South Omaha to the courthouse to lynch a black worker, Willy Brown, a suspect in an alleged rape of a white woman. The mob burned the Douglas County Courthouse to get the prisoner, causing more than $1,000,000 damage. They hung and shot Will Brown, then burned his body.[63] Troops were called in from Fort Omaha to quell the riot, prevent more crowds gathering in South Omaha, and to protect the black community in North Omaha.[64]

The construction of Interstates80, 480 and 680, along with the North Omaha Freeway, spurred development. There was also controversy, particularly in North Omaha, where several neighborhoods were bisected by new routes.[68]Creighton University hosted the DePorres Club, an early civil rights group whose sit-in strategies for integration of public facilities predated the national movement, starting in 1947.[69]

Following the development of the Glenn L. Martin Company bomber manufacturing plant in Bellevue at the beginning of World War II, the relocation of the Strategic Air Command to the Omaha suburb in 1948 provided a major economic boost to the area.[70]

After surpassing Chicago in meat processing by the late 1950s, Omaha suffered the loss of 10,000 jobs as both the railroad and meatpacking industries restructured. The city struggled for decades to shift its economy as workers suffered. Poverty became more entrenched among families who remained in North Omaha.

In the 1960s, three major race riots along North 24th Street destroyed the Near North Side's economic base, with recovery slow for decades.[72] In 1969, Woodmen Tower was completed and became Omaha's tallest building and first major skyscraper at 478 feet (146 m), a sign of renewal.

Since the 1970s, Omaha has continued expanding and growing, mostly to available land to the west. West Omaha has become home to the majority of the city's population. North and South Omaha's populations continue to be centers of new immigrants, with economic and racial diversity. In 1975 a major tornado, along with a major blizzard, caused more than $100 million in damages in 1975 dollars.[73]

The demolition of Jobber's Canyon in 1989 led to the creation of the ConAgra Foods campus.[76] Several nearby buildings, including the Nash Block, have been converted into condominiums. The stockyards were taken down; the only surviving building is the Livestock Exchange Building, which was converted to multi-use and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[77]

In the 1980s and 1990s, Omaha also saw major company headquarters leave the city, including Enron, founded in the city in 1930 and taken to Houston in 1987 by the now-notorious Kenneth Lay. First Data Corporation, a large credit-card processor, also was founded in Omaha in 1969; as of 2009, its headquarters are in Atlanta.

Bozell, once one of the largest advertising agencies in the United States, according to Advertising Age, was founded in 1921 as Bozell and Jacobs and is famous for campaigns including Pork: The Other White Meat and Got Milk? The firm left for New York in 1997 when it was acquired by True North. Inacom, founded in Omaha in 1991, was a technology company that customized computer systems for large businesses, and was on the Fortune 500 list from 1997 until 2000, when it filed for bankruptcy. Northwestern Bell, the Bell System affiliate for Northwestern states, had its headquarters in Omaha from its founding in 1896 until it moved to Denver in 1991 as US West. Level 3 Communications, a large Tier 1 network provider, was founded in Omaha in 1985 as Kiewit Diversified Group, a division of Kiewit Corporation, a Fortune 500 construction and mining company still headquartered in Omaha; Level 3 moved to Denver in 1998. World Com was founded by a merger with Omaha's MFS Communications, started as Metropolitan Fiber Systems in 1993. MFS, backed by Kiewit Corporation CEO Walter Scott and Warren Buffett, purchased UUNET, one of the largest Internet backbones in the world, for $2 billion in 1996. The now-infamous Bernie Ebbers purchased the much larger MFS for $14.3 billion in 1997 under his World Com. He moved headquarters of the merged company from Omaha to Mississippi.[78]

There have also been several developments along the Missouri River waterfront in downtown. The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge was opened to foot and bicycle traffic on September 28, 2008.[87] Started in 2003,[88]RiverFront Place Condos first phase was completed in 2006 and is fully occupied and the second phase was opened in 2011. The development along Omaha's riverfront is attributed with prompting the City of Council Bluffs to move their own riverfront development time line forward.[89]

The Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area consists of eight counties; five in Nebraska and three in Iowa.[94] The metropolitan area now includes Harrison, Pottawattamie, and Mills Counties in Iowa and Washington, Douglas, Sarpy, Cass, and Saunders Counties in Nebraska. This area was formerly referred to only as the Omaha Metropolitan Statistical Area and consisted of only five counties: Pottawattamie in Iowa, and Washington, Douglas, Cass, and Sarpy in Nebraska.[95] The Omaha-Council Bluffs combined statistical area comprises the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan statistical area and the FremontMicropolitan statistical area; the CSA has a population of 858,720 (2005 Census Bureau estimate). Omaha ranks as the 42nd-largest city in the United States, and is the core city of its 60th-largest metropolitan area.[96] There are currently no consolidated city-counties in the area; the City of Omaha studied the possibility extensively through 2003 and concluded, "The City of Omaha and Douglas County should merge into a municipal county, work to commence immediately, and that functional consolidations begin immediately in as many departments as possible, including but not limited to parks, fleet management, facilities management, local planning, purchasing and personnel."[97]

Geographically, Omaha is considered as being located in the "Heartland" of the United States. Important environmental impacts on the natural habitat in the area include the spread of invasive plant species, restoring prairies and bur oaksavanna habitats, and managing the whitetail deer population.[98]

Omaha is home to several hospitals, located mostly along Dodge St (US6). Being the county seat, it is also the location of the county courthouse.

Omaha is generally divided into six geographic areas: Downtown, Midtown, North Omaha, South Omaha, West Omaha, and East Omaha. West Omaha includes the Miracle Hills, Boys Town, Regency, and Gateway areas.[86] There is also a small community in East Omaha. The city has a wide range of historical and new neighborhoods and suburbs that reflect its socioeconomic diversity. Early neighborhood development happened in ethnic enclaves,[99] including Little Italy, Little Bohemia, Little Mexico and Greek Town.[100] According to U.S. Census data, five European ethnic enclaves existed in Omaha in 1880, expanding to nine in 1900.[101]

Around the start of the 20th century. the City of Omaha annexed several surrounding communities, including Florence, Dundee and Benson. At the same time, the city annexed all of South Omaha, including the Dahlman and Burlington Road neighborhoods. From its first annexation in 1857 (of East Omaha) to its recent and controversial annexation of Elkhorn, Omaha has continually had an eye towards growth.[102]

Starting in the 1950s, development of highways and new housing led to movement of middle class to suburbs in West Omaha. Some of the movement was designated as white flight from racial unrest in the 1960s.[103] Newer and poorer migrants lived in older housing close to downtown; those residents who were more established moved west into newer housing. Some suburbs are gated communities or have become edge cities.[104] Recently, Omahans have made strides to revitalize the downtown and Midtown areas with the redevelopment of the Old Market, Turner Park, Gifford Park, and the designation of the Omaha Rail and Commerce Historic District.

Omaha, due to its latitude of 41.26˚ N and location far from moderating bodies of water or mountain ranges, displays a humid continental climate (KöppenDfa), with hot, humid summers and cold, relatively dry winters. July averages 76.7 °F (24.8 °C), with moderate, but sometimes-high humidity and relatively frequent thunderstorms, usually rather violent and capable of spawning severe weather or tornadoes; temperatures reach 90 °F (32 °C) on 29 days and 100 °F (38 °C) on 1.7 days annually. The January daily average is 23.5 °F (−4.7 °C), with lows reaching 0 °F (−18 °C) on 11 days annually. The lowest temperature recorded in the city was −32 °F (−36 °C) on January 5, 1884,[109] and the highest 114 °F (46 °C) on July 25, 1936.[110] Average yearly precipitation is 30.6 inches (777 mm), falling mostly in the warmer months. What precipitation that does fall in winter usually takes the form of snow, with average seasonal snowfall being 28.7 inches (73 cm).

There were 162,627 households of which 31.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.6% were married couples living together, 13.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.9% had a male householder with no wife present, and 40.7% were non-families. 32.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 3.14.

The median age in the city was 33.5 years. 25.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 11.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 27.9% were from 25 to 44; 24.4% were from 45 to 64; and 11.4% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.2% male and 50.8% female.

The median income for a household in the city was $40,006, and the median income for a family was $50,821. Males had a median income of $34,301 versus $26,652 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,756. 11.3% of the population and 7.8% of families lived below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 15.6% of those under the age of 18 and 7.4% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.[124]

View of 24th and Lake Streets in North Omaha, site of many notable events in Omaha's African American community

Native Americans were the first residents of the Omaha area. The city of Omaha was established by European Americans from neighboring Council Bluffs who arrived from the Northeast United States a few years earlier. While much of the early population was of Yankee stock, over the next 100 years numerous ethnic groups moved to the city. In 1910, the Census Bureau reported Omaha's population as 96.4% White and 3.6% Black.[125]Irish immigrants in Omaha originally moved to an area in present-day North Omaha called "Gophertown", as they lived in dirt dugouts.[54] That population was followed by Polish immigrants in the Sheelytown neighborhood, and many immigrants were recruited for jobs in South Omaha's stockyards and meatpacking industry.[126] The German community in Omaha was largely responsible for founding its once-thriving beer industry,[127] including the Metz, Krug, Falstaff and the Storz breweries.

In the early 20th century, Jewish immigrants set up numerous businesses along the North 24th Street commercial area. It suffered with the loss of industrial jobs in the 1960s and later, the shifting of population west of the city. The commercial area is now the center of the African American community, concentrated in North Omaha.[128] The African-American community has maintained its social and religious base, while it is currently experiencing an economic revitalization.

Mexicans originally immigrated to Omaha to work in the rail yards. Today they compose the majority of South Omaha's Hispanic population and many have taken jobs in meat processing.[134] Other significant early ethnic populations in Omaha included Danes, Poles, and Swedes.

A growing number of African immigrants have made their homes in Omaha in the last twenty years. There are approximately 8,500 Sudanese living in Omaha, comprising the largest population of Sudanese refugees in the United States. Most have immigrated since 1995 because of warfare in their nation. Ten different tribes are represented, including the Nuer, Dinka, Equatorians, Maubans and Nubians. Most Sudanese people in Omaha speak the Nuer language.[135] Other Africans have immigrated to Omaha as well, with one-third from Nigeria, and significant populations from Kenya, Togo, Cameroon and Ghana.[136][137][138]

With the expansion of railroad and industrial jobs in meatpacking, Omaha attracted many new immigrants and migrants. As the major city in Nebraska, it has historically been more racially and ethnically diverse than the rest of the state.[139] At times rapid population change, overcrowded housing and job competition have aroused racial and ethnic tensions. Around the start of the 20th century, violence towards new immigrants in Omaha often erupted out of suspicions and fears.[140]

The Greek Town Riot in 1909 flared after increased Greek immigration, Greeks' working as strikebreakers, and the killing of an Irish policeman provoked violence among earlier immigrants such as ethnic Irish.[141] That mob violence forced the Greek immigrant population to flee from the city.[142][143] By 1910, 53.7% of Omaha’s residents and 64.2% of South Omaha’s residents were foreign born or had at least one parent born outside of America.[144] Six years after the Greek Town Riot, in 1915, a Mexican immigrant named Juan Gonzalez was killed by a mob near Scribner, a town in the Greater Omaha metropolitan area. The event occurred after an Omaha Police Department officer was investigating a criminal operation selling goods stolen from the nearby railroad yards. Racial profiling targeted Gonzalez as the culprit. After escaping the city, he was trapped along the Elkhorn River, where the mob, including several policemen from Omaha, shot him more than twenty times. Afterward it was discovered that Gonzalez was unarmed, and that he had a reliable alibi for the time of the murder. Nobody was ever indicted for his lynching.[145] In the fall of 1919, following Red Summer, postwar social and economic tensions, the earlier hiring of blacks as strikebreakers, and job uncertainty contributed to a mob from South Omaha lynching Willy Brown and the ensuing Omaha Race Riot. Trying to defend Brown, the city's mayor, Edward Parsons Smith, was lynched also, surviving only after a quick rescue.[54]

Similar to other industrial cities in the U.S., Omaha suffered severe job losses in the 1950s, more than 10,000 in total, as both the railroad and meatpacking industries restructured. Stockyards and packing plants were located closer to ranches, and union achievements were lost as wages declined in surviving jobs.[146] Many workers left the area if they could get to other jobs. Poverty deepened in areas of the city whose residents had depended on those jobs, specifically North and South Omaha. At the same time, with reduced revenues, the city had less financial ability to respond to longstanding problems. Despair after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in April 1968 contributed to riots in North Omaha, including one at the Logan Fontenelle Housing Project.[147] For some, the Civil Rights Movement in Omaha, Nebraska evolved towards black nationalism, as the Black Panther Party was involved in tensions in the late 1960s. Organizations such as the Black Association for Nationalism Through Unity became popular among the city's African-American youth. This tension culminated in the cause célèbre trial of the Rice/Poindexter Case, in which an Omaha Police Department officer was killed by a bomb while answering an emergency call. After 5 years of obscurity, the black population was finally able to vote.

Whites in Omaha have followed the white flight pattern, suburbanizing to West Omaha over time.[148] In the late 1990s and early 2000s, gang violence and incidents between the Omaha Police Department and members of the African-American community aggravated relations between groups in North and South Omaha. More recent Hispanic immigrants, concentrated in South Omaha, have struggled to earn living wages in meatpacking, adapt to a new society, and deal with discrimination.[149]

According to USA Today, Omaha ranks eighth among the nation's 50 largest cities in both per-capita billionaires and Fortune 500 companies.[150] With diversification in several industries, including banking, insurance, telecommunications, architecture/construction, and transportation, Omaha's economy has grown dramatically since the early 1990s. In 2001 Newsweek identified Omaha as one of the Top 10 high-tech havens in the nation.[151] Six national fiber optic networks converge in Omaha.[152]

The Henry Doorly Zoo is widely considered one of the premier zoos in the world.[172][173][174] The zoo is home to the world's largest nocturnal exhibit and indoor swamp;[175] the world's largest indoor rainforest, the world's largest indoor desert,[176] and the largest geodesic dome in the world (13 stories tall).[177][178] The Zoo is Nebraska’s number one paid attendance attraction and has welcomed more than 25 million visitors over the past 40 years.[179]

The Old Market is a major historic district in Downtown Omaha listed on the National Register of Historical Places. Today, its warehouses and other buildings house shops, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and art galleries.[180] Downtown is also the location of the Omaha Rail and Commerce Historic District, which has several art galleries and restaurants as well. The Omaha Botanical Gardens features 100 acres (40 ha) with a variety of landscaping, and the new Kenefick Park recognizes Union Pacific Railroad's long history in Omaha.[181] North Omaha has several historical cultural attractions including the Dreamland Historical Project, Love’s Jazz and Art Center, and the John Beasley Theater.[182] The annual River City Roundup is celebrated at Fort Omaha, and the neighborhood of Florence celebrates its history during "Florence Days". Native Omaha Days is a biennial event celebrating Near North Side heritage.[183]

Omaha also has a fledgling hip hop scene. Long-time bastion Houston Alexander, a one-time graffiti artist and professional Mixed Martial Arts competitor, is currently a local hip-hop radio show host.[188][189] Cerone Thompson, known as "Scrybe," has had a number one single on college radio stations across the United States. He has also had several number one hits on the local hip hop station respectively titled, "Lose Control" and "Do What U Do".[190] More recently, in 2009 Eric Scheid, also known as "Titus," released a single called "What Do You Believe" featuring Bizzy Bone from the nationally known hip hop group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. The single was produced by Omaha producer J Keez. The record was released by Smashmode Publishing and Timeless Keys Music Publishing which are two Omaha-based music publishing companies. South Omaha's OTR Familia, consisting of MOC and Xpreshin aka XP, have worked with Fat Joes Terror Squad on several songs and have participated in summer concerts with Pitbull, Nicky Jam, and Aventura.[190]

The 1935 winner of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing was named Omaha, and after traveling the world the horse eventually retired to a farm south of the city. The horse made promotional appearances at Ak-Sar-Ben during the 1950s and following his death in 1959 was buried at the racetrack's Circle of Champions.

After Rosenblatt Stadium closed, its tenants moved to new venues. On April 16, 2011, the Omaha Storm Chasers played their first game at the new Werner Park in the Omaha suburb of Papillion.[203] The CWS moved to the new downtown stadium TD Ameritrade Park in 2011–present.[204][205] Omaha is also home to the Omaha Diamond Spirit, a collegiate summer baseball team that plays in the MINK league.

On April 15, 2010, it was announced that Omaha would be home to a new expansion team in the United Football League to begin play in 2010. The team played its inaugural season at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium before moving to TD Ameritrade Park for its second and final season.[206]

Ice hockey is a popular spectator sport in Omaha and there are two Omaha-area teams. The Omaha Lancers, a United States Hockey League team that played at Aksarben until 2004, moved to neighboring city of Council Bluffs at the Mid-America Center, and moved back to Omaha in 2009 to play at the Civic Auditorium[207] The University of Nebraska OmahaMavericks, is an NCAA Division I team that plays at the CenturyLink Center. Omaha has a thriving running community and many miles of paved running and biking trails throughout the city and surrounding communities. The Omaha Marathon involves a half-marathon and a 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) race that take place annually in September.[208] Omaha also has a history of curling, including multiple junior national champions.[209]

Omaha has a strong mayor form of government, along with a city council that is elected from seven districts across the city. The current mayor is Jean Stothert, who was elected in May 2013. The longest serving mayor in Omaha's history was "Cowboy" Jim Dahlman, who served 20 years over eight terms. He was regarded as the "wettest mayor in America" because of the flourishing number of bars in Omaha during his tenure.[213] Dahlman was a close associate of political boss Tom Dennison.[214] During Dahlman's tenure, the city switched from its original strong-mayor form of government to a city commission government.[215] In 1956, the city switched back.[216]

The city clerk is Buster Brown. The City of Omaha administers twelve departments, including finance, police, human rights, libraries and planning.[217] The Omaha City Council is the legislative branch and is made up seven members elected from districts across the city. The council enacts local ordinances and approves the city budget. Government priorities and activities are established in a budget ordinance approved annually. The council takes official action through the passage of ordinances and resolutions. Nebraska’s constitution grants the option of home rule to cities with more than 5,000 residents, meaning they may operate under their own charters. Omaha is one of only three cities in Nebraska to use this option, out of 17 eligible.[218] The City of Omaha is currently considering consolidating with Douglas County government.[219]

Although registered Republicans outnumbered Democrats in the 2nd congressional district, which includes Omaha, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opened three campaign offices in the city with 15 staff members to cover the state in fall 2008.[220] Mike Fahey, the former Democratic mayor of Omaha, said he would do whatever it took to deliver the district's electoral vote to Obama; and the Obama campaign considered the district "in play".[221] Former Nebraska U.S. SenatorBob Kerrey and former Senator Ben Nelson campaigned in the city for Obama,[222] and in November 2008 Obama won the district's electoral vote. This was an exceptional win, because with Nebraska's split electoral vote system Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win an electoral vote in Nebraska since 1964.[223]

In 2011, Nebraska lawmakers moved Offutt Air Force Base and the town of Bellevue — an area with a large minority population — out of the Omaha-based 2nd District and shifted in the Republican-heavy Omaha suburbs in Sarpy County. The move is expected to dilute the city’s urban Democratic vote.[224]

Omaha's rate of violent crimes per 100,000 residents has been lower than the average rates of three dozen United States cities of similar size. Unlike Omaha, those cities have experienced an increase in violent crime overall since 2003. Rates for property crime have decreased for both Omaha and its peer cities during the same time period.[225] In 2006, Omaha was ranked for homicides as 46th out of the 72 cities in the United States of more than 250,000 in population.[226]

As a major industrial city into the mid-20th century, Omaha shared in social tensions of larger cities that accompanied rapid growth and many new immigrants and migrants. By the 1950s, Omaha was a center for illegal gambling,[227] while experiencing dramatic job losses and unemployment because of dramatic restructuring of the railroads and the meatpacking industry, as well as other sectors. Persistent poverty resulting from racial discrimination and job losses generated different crimes in the late 20th century, with drug trade and drug abuse becoming associated with violent crime rates, which climbed after 1986 as Los Angeles gangs made affiliates in the city.[228] Gambling in Omaha has been significant throughout the city's history. From its founding in the 1850s through the 1930s, the city was known as a "wide-open" town, meaning that gambling of all sorts was accepted either openly or in closed quarters. By the mid-20th century, Omaha reportedly had more illicit gambling per capita than any other city in the nation. From the 1930s through the 1970s the city's gambling was controlled by an Italian criminal element.[229] Today, gambling in Omaha is limited to keno, lotteries, and parimutuel betting, leaving Omahans to drive across the Missouri River to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where casinos are legal and there are numerous businesses operating currently. Recently a controversial proposal by the Ponca tribe of Nebraska was approved by the National Indian Gaming Commission. It will allow the tribe to build a casino in Carter Lake, Iowa, which sits geographically on the west side of the Missouri River, adjacent to Omaha, where casinos are illegal.[230][231][232]

The major daily newspaper in Nebraska is the Omaha World-Herald, which is the largest employee-owned newspaper in the United States.[238] Weeklies in the city include the Midlands Business Journal (weekly business publication), American Classifieds (Formerly Thrifty Nickel), a weekly classified newspaper, The Reader (newspaper), and Omaha Magazine, as well as The Omaha Star. Founded in 1938 in North Omaha, the Star is Nebraska's only African-American newspaper.[239] The city is the focus of the Omaha designated market area, and is the 76th largest in the United States.[240] Omaha's four television news stations were found not to represent the city's racial composition in a 2007 study.[241]Cox Communications provides cable television services throughout the metropolitan area.[242]

In 2008 Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine ranked Omaha the No. 3 best city in the United States to "live, work and play".[243] Omaha's growth has required the constant development of new urban infrastructure that influence, allow and encourage the constant expansion of the city.

Portions of the Enron corporation began as Northern Natural Gas Company in Omaha. Northern currently provides three natural gas lines to Omaha. Enron formerly owned UtiliCorp United, Inc., which became Aquila, Inc.. Peoples Natural Gas, a division of Aquila, Inc., currently serves several surrounding communities around the Omaha metropolitan area, including Plattsmouth.[247]

Omaha's central role in the history of transportation across America earned it the nickname "Gate City of the West."[1] Despite President Lincoln's decree that Council Bluffs, Iowa, be the starting point for the Union Pacific Railroad, construction began from Omaha on the eastern portion of the first transcontinental railroad.[250] By the middle of the 20th century, Omaha was served by almost every major railroad. Today, the Omaha Rail and Commerce Historic District celebrates this connection, along with the listing of the Burlington Train Station and the Union Station on the National Register of Historic Places. First housed in the former Herndon House, the Union Pacific Railroad's corporate headquarters have been in Omaha since the company began.[251] Their new headquarters, the Union Pacific Center, was opened in Downtown Omaha in 2004. Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service through Omaha. The Greyhound lines terminal is at 1601 Jackson St in downtown Omaha. Megabus has a stop at Crossroads Mall - N 72nd St between Dodge St and Cass St, and provides service to Des Moines, Iowa City, and Chicago. Metro Transit, previously known as Metro Area Transit, is the local bus.

A 2011 study by Walk Score ranked Omaha 21st most walkable of fifty largest U.S. cities.[255] There is an extensive trail system throughout the city for walkers, runners, bicyclists, and other pedestrian modes of transportation.

^Official records for Omaha kept at the Weather Bureau Office from January 1871 to May 1935 and at Eppley Airfield since June 1935 except for June 1977 thru December 1993 when the official station was Omaha WSFO.[112]

^Morton, J.S., Watkins, A. and Miller, G.L. (1911) "Fur trade", Illustrated History of Nebraska: A History of Nebraska from the Earliest Explorations of the Trans-Mississippi Region, with Steel Engravings, Photogravures, Copper Plates, Maps and Tables. Western Publishing and Engraving Company. p. 53.

^Royce, C.C. (1899) "Indian Land Cessions in the United States," in Powell, J.W. 18th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1896–97, Part 2, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

^Peattie, E.W. "How they live at Sheely: Pen picture of a strange settlement and its queer set of inhabitants," March 31, 1895. in (2005) Impertinences: Selected Writings of Elia Peattie, a Journalist in the Gilded Age. University of Nebraska Press. p. 31.

^Laliotou, I. (2004) Transatlantic Subjects: Acts of Migration and Cultures of Transnationalism Between Greece and America. University of Chicago Press. p. 185.

^Burgess, T. (1913) Greeks in America: An Account of Their Coming, Progress, Customs, Living, and Aspirations; with an Historical Introduction and the Stories of Some Famous American-Greeks. Sherman-French Publishers. p. 163.

^Wishart, D. (2004) "Omaha, Nebraska," in Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. University of Nebraska Press. p. 177.

^United States Congress Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights. (1974) Criminal Justice Data Banks 1974: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary. Government Printing Office. p 411.